Rocky Road
by writer of things here
Summary: A slow burn, slice of life Bumblebee fic set in the RWBY universe (as opposed to all of those AU fics I keep finding).
1. A Gift to Give

A/N

Hello all, gonna write a long fic here with a bunch of one shots that take place in between the major plot points of the show. I will not be summarizing the show, nor will I be novelizing events that have already happened if I don't have to. (Like the scene in V2 where Yang tells Blake about her past.) All that said, let's get this show on the road.

~Rocky Road~

One month after passing the entrance exam and getting into Beacon, Yang found herself in Vale, a list of bookstores pulled up on her scroll.

It had been standard combat school stuff after getting a partner in the Emerald Forest; studying and combat training. But last Friday, a surprise had come her way in the form of a partner interview conducted by their team leader. While the team leader and their partner had been interviewed by one of the staff at Beacon, Yang and Blake had been interviewed by Ruby. It had been unexpected, but Yang at least thought that she could answer most questions about Blake. Oh how wrong she had been. Just to recap some of the highlights:

"What is the name of your partners weapon?" Ruby had asked.

"Uh…" Yet another question she couldn't answer.

"Ember Celica." Blake answered simply.

"Good." Ruby wrote something down. "What is your partners middle name?" She asked, looking between the two, though after failing to provide an answer for the first several questions Yang had noticed that her younger sister was looking to Blake first.

"Xiao."

"..." Looking to the ground, Yang clasped her hands behind her neck, and exhaled.

"Alright, um…" Ruby tapped a pencil against her leg. "What does your partner like to do in their free time?"

"Read!" Yang had all but shouted as she stood up, then quickly took her seat back. _"Eight freaking questions without an answer, I finally get to answer one."_

"Socialize." Blake said, her tone still even.

"Awesome. Yang, what kind of books does Blake like to read?" Ruby asked, focusing on her older sister. And leaning in with a glint in her eyes.

"Uh…" Yang didn't answer immediately as she tilted her head ever so slightly to get a hint from her partner, whose face remained neutral.

"Don't look at her." Ruby ordered, motioning for Yang to keep eye contact with her. "What kind of books does she like?" She asked again, her voice dipping lower.

" _Ohhh what book was she reading that day we met when I tried to introduce her to Ruby?"_ Yang thought to herself. _"It wasn't something I would read, so…"_ Her train of thought stopped there.

Ruby sighed, stretching her arms over her head. "Alright, let's-"

"It's horror! She likes to read horror books." Yang blurted out, cutting Ruby off and clenching her fists together as she looked at her partner with a grin.

"Not even close." Blake said with a frown.

Yang groaned, covering her face with her hands.

The rest of the interview had been similar, with Blake unable to answer only a few questions about Yang while Yang could answer almost none of the questions about Blake. Even though she didn't talk much, Yang had never found her partner to be unapproachable, but Ruby had opened her eyes to how little she knew about Blake after spending a month together with her. So the next Blake had left the room for a long period of time, Yang had gone through the books that Blake had brought with her from home and stacked into the bookshelf beneath the window. Noticing a lot of different genres (lacking horror, of course), Yang had decided to get a lot of different books to cover all her bases, and then use the gifts as an icebreaker in an attempt to get to know Blake better.

And to serve as an apology. Blake didn't seem particularly upset that Yang didn't know that much about her after all this time, but that didn't make Yang feel any better. So she stepped into the first bookstore, giving a courtesy wave to the cashier who greeted her. "Where do you keep the mystery books?" Yang asked, taking a few steps closer to the counter.

"In the back."

Once she'd gotten to the rows of shelves, Yang scanned the titles, looking for something that seemed like Blake would be interested in. She pulled out various tomes, hardback and paperback, thick and thin, reading the descriptions and putting them all back one by one until a title printed in white on a black spine caught her eye. "The Shadow Over Arehaza," She mumbled, pulling it out and reading the description. "A lone huntsmen investigates the mysterious disappearance of a young man in a small port town…. Okay, how does it end?" Flipping to the back, her eyes widened as she spoiled the story for herself. "Alright, this one it is!" Taking it to the front and paying for it, Yang stored it in her bike then headed to the next bookstore. This process repeated several times over the course of a few hours, until finally Yang found herself unlocking the door to her team's dorm.

"I'm back!" She announced as she kicked the door open, causing it to rebound violently against the wall. "I got you a present, Blake." She said, setting the plastic bag full of books at the feet of her teammate, who was laying down with a novel already in had.

Blake lowered the book with and gave a Yang a surprised look. "You… didn't have to do that."

"Ah, nonsense. Now, go on; open it!"

"You didn't even wrap it." Weiss pointed out.

"Where's my present!?" Ruby whined.

"Both of you get out!" Yang said quickly, grabbing both of them by the ear and leading them to the door, closing it behind them. The sound of plastic crinkling caused her to turn around, and she smiled widely when she saw Blake's own. "A-ha! I knew you'd like it!" Yang started walking over to Blake, leaning down until her face was just a few inches from her partners. "Yoooouu're welcome!"

"I appreciate this Yang, but do you remember that talk we had about personal space?" Blake asked, keeping her smile in place though her tone dipped.

Yang nodded, apologizing and taking a step backwards to sit on Weiss's bed. A silence settled on them, and for a second Yang wasn't sure where to go with this. "Sooo… how come you like to read so much?" She asked innocently.

"Well…" Blake's face fell for a second, and her eyes clouded. "I grew up outside the kingdoms, so I spent a lot of time fighting or travelling. And if I wasn't doing one or the other, I was more interested in having time to myself. So, books were how I filled that time." Grabbing another one out of the pile, a smile flitted across her face for a second. "It was easier seeing fictional characters dealing with their troubles rather than dealing with my own, sometimes."

"Well, you're no slouch in combat. How'd you come up with your weapon?" Yang lay out on Weiss's bed, propping her head up with one hand.

"Well, I came up with the blade and sheathe on my own, but it was a friend of mine who suggested I try using it together with a whip."

Sensing a heaviness in her words, Yang quickly tried to steer the conversation back to more positive ground. "It was a good idea; there's no way I could've come up with something so unique." Another pause, the silence more palpable than earlier. "Uh…" Unsure how to continue breaking the ice, Yang pursed her lips together tightly.

"So what's with the gift and the questions?" Blake asked before Yang could come up with more questions to get information out of her.

Sitting up and straightening her clothes, Yang answered, "I was just… I dunno, I felt like I let you down somehow after we went through that pop-partner-quiz the other day." She smiled sheepishly, running one hand through her hair.

"Well, I guess a lot of people are feeling that way."

Blinking, Yang tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"Yang, pretty much all the first year students couldn't answer most of the questions about their partners. Ruby didn't know anything about Weiss, Pyrrha and Jaune didn't know anything about each other, and the only people who were able to answer those types of questions with accuracy were people like Ren and Nora who've known each other for a long time before Beacon." Blake informed her, trying and failing to suppress a smile.

"Whew! For the past two days I've been beating myself up for being a bad partner." Yang said with a laugh, leaning forward and resting her arms on her legs.

"Well, you're not, so you don't have to beat yourself up over something you can't help."

Yang stood up. "Awesome! Though if we ever have to go through another one of those tests, I'm going to be able to answer all those questions without fail! Mark my words, Belladonna!"

"I'm sure." Blake said, turning her attention back to the books that Yang had bought for her.

"Well, I'll keep Ruby and Weiss out of your hair for a while so you can get to reading! Don't have too much fun while were gone." Yang gave a wave as she opened the door, stepping outside and pulling Ruby and Weiss away with her, both of whom had been awkwardly standing outside the room unsure as to what they should do.

Pulling out all of the books and setting them in a pile, Blake looked over each title, stopping when she saw _The Shadow Over Arehaza._ For a moment Blake just looked at it, confused as to its familiarity. She looked over the books she already, but the title wasn't among them. Then a lightbulb went off over her head, and she pulled out her scroll. _"What are the odds?"_

Scrolling through her list of recent calls (which were mostly wrong numbers and telemarketers), Blake found the number she was looking for and re-dialed it. A moment later, a voice on the other end answered. "Yes, I need to cancel an order I had placed… It was under Belladonna...B-E-L-L.. That's the one. No, not at all. A friend of mine just happened to pick it up for me while out shopping today. Okay, thank you. Goodbye."

Stacking all of the purchases into a neat pile, Blake figured she would have to find some way to pay Yang back for all this. It's not like it would be hard task to accomplish; after a month she had a pretty good grasp on what Yang liked and disliked.


	2. A Game to Play

Between classes, the sheer amount of homework each teacher assigned, and all the combat practice, Yang quickly came to realize that Beacon was far more intense than Signal was. Not that that was a bad thing, she had done well at Signal and was prepared for Beacon, but over the past couple of weeks, even on the weekends, it felt like she had no free time to relax or do something she wanted. The sad thing was the current workload paled in comparison to the amount of studying that had to be done before tests.

Which is why Yang was currently still in the library at eleven p.m. on a Friday night, several textbooks and notebooks on the table around her. She was going to finish all her assignments tonight, sleep in tomorrow, and then have the rest of the day off. Then Sunday she would look over and improve upon her work, and ask her teammates and peers to review everything as well. This would be the first Saturday in a long time Yang would have all to herself, and she was going to take advantage of it.

Shortly after midnight, Yang closed all her books, put all her belongings in her backpack, put all the books she pulled off shelves back where they had come from, then exited the library. It was about six minutes to her dorm, and when she arrived she opened the door quietly, gently setting her backpack down in the corner, taking off her boots and setting them aside neatly as well. She stumbled a bit as she pulled her socks off, then carefully looked over to Weiss. Thankfully she was undisturbed; in a twist of irony, she woke everyone up when she complained about being woken up. There wasn't any movement from Fort Ruby either, and Blake was still as well. Slowly climbing up to her bed, too tired to switch into pajamas, she pulled out her scroll, turned her alarm off, then fell asleep moments later.

-Rocky Road-

"Yang."

A calm voice and a hand on her shoulder disturbed her rest. "Mmf…"

"It's almost noon. You're not going to sleep all day, are you?"

She pushed the hand away. "...No." With a groan, she sat up. "Don't look at me, I'm not ready yet."

Blake giggled softly. "Late nights and late mornings will do that to you."

"Ha ha." Yang said sarcastically, stretching and rolling out of bed, falling to the floor with a loud thump. She looked up at Blake and held out her hand to be pulled up, but Blake just rolled her eyes and stepped over Yang to get back into her bed. _"Cold."_ She thought to herself, grabbing a fresh set of clothes, her towel, and then headed into the bathroom to shower. About half an hour later, feeling and looking much more refreshed, Yang emerged and grabbed her scroll off her friend.

Blake looked comfortable and wished not to be disturbed, so instead of bothering her, Yang elected to head over to JNPR's dorm. Three loud knocks and a "You're favourite person is here, open up!" later, Yang… was left out in the hall. Three more, _louder_ knocks and a "Don't ignore me!" later, she realized that they must've been out. Returning to her room, she sat down at the lone desk and texted Nora, Pyrrha, and a few of her old friends from Signal, wanting to know if anyone was free to hang out. Pyrrha and Nora both said they were stuck doing schoolwork, and apparently the usual suspects were all in detention, serving their time working in the cafeteria.

" _Time to bother Blake!"_

Standing up and flopping into bed next to her, Yang completely ignored the way the top bunk shifted so slightly. "Watcha doing?" She asked, even though it was blatantly obvious what her partner was up to.

"Yang, personal space."

Sitting up and putting some distance between them, Yang only cocked her head as waited for Blake to respond.

"I'm reading."

"Well duh!" Yang rolled her eyes. "I can _see_ that. But you and I should do something else!" Laying flat on her stomach and resting her head on her hands, Yang swished her legs back and forth.

Blake just frowned. "Yang, you bought me these books and I want to read them." She held up the novel in her hand to accentuate her point.

"But I'm boooooored!" Yang said with an innocent smile.

"You just woke up!" Blake cried in disbelief.

"No one's able to hang out with me, and you can't spend all your time cooped up in bed reading." Yang tried.

"And why not?" Blake challenged.

"Cause I'm here!" She answered simply.

Putting a bookmark in the pages, Blake rolled her eyes. "Fine. What do I have to do?"

"Hmm. Give me a moment." Yang tapped a finger against her chin as she thought. Blake reopened her book, but was only able to read two words before Yang placed a finger on top of the book and pulled it down so she could make eye contact with Blake. "Let's play some video games!" Blake's expression fell, and a look of confusion fell over Yang.

"I've never played a video game in my life, Yang."

"Oh!" Wondering why she had been momentarily worried, Yang's usual cheery demeanor returned. "That's no problem, I can teach you!" Getting out of the bed, Yang synced up her scroll with the Holovision stand, and she quickly found and pulled up a game that Blake could get play without being overwhelmed. Looking over, she saw that Blake was pulling out her scroll while looking a little apprehensive. "Don't worry; this game is all about working together. Plus its really simple."

She turned back to the screen, where the words " _Invasion of the Aliens!"_ was written in red text in all caps across the hologram. In the bottom right hand corner, Blake's school photo and a notification that her scroll had been synced appeared. Yang nodded, then went into the settings. _"Difficulty… Normal… Lives, five… Hazards off… bosses disabled... omega bosses disabled… omega enemies disabled... That should do it!"_ Starting the game up, they were greeting with pixel art of an army General. "Soldiers! The enemy is on our doorstep! Hold out until reinforcements arrive!" Read the subtitle at the bottom of the screen.

"Alright Blake, our goal is to survive as many waves of bad guys as possible. The aliens will come through doors, windows, blow holes in the walls, teleport in, teleport us around the map, we have limited ammo and health resources, we have five lives each, so let's stick together!" Yang explained.

"Uh, which one am I?" Blake asked.

"The blue one."

"How do I shoot?"

"It's this button here." Yang pointed to one of the buttons. "This circle moves you, this circle rotates you, and this one lets you throw grenades if you have any."

"What're those bars on the side?" Blake's brow furrowed as she looked at the screen. The aliens had started attacking, and she'd shot a few of them before noticing numbers were appearing and going up. "Scores? Why are we being scored? I thought we just had to survive."

Yang laughed at Blake's confusion. "You get points when you land hits and kill aliens, and when you repair damage done to the base. You use those points to buy more ammo, refill your health, and you can also set up automatic turrets that will kill the bad guys for you."

"That's dumb. Shouldn't the turrets be activated all the time during an alien invasion? Why do we pay for them, or for ammo or health? Aren't we soldiers in the military? Don't most soldiers-"

"Blake!" Yang whined. "Just play the game! Stop asking so many questions!"

"...It's a dumb game, is all I'm saying."

Pausing the game, Yang turned to her partner and quickly said, "It wouldn't be fun if you weren't being challenged. The whole point is the struggle to survive! If you had infinite health, ammo, and money, their wouldn't even be a point in playing!" She turned the game back on, and a silence settled between the two broken only by the sounds coming from the game. After a couple of minutes passed, Yang said, "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you."

Blake didn't respond immediately, but her response wasn't what Yang was expecting. "It's okay, I was doing it on purpose."

The game paused again. "You what?" Yang asked, unsure of what she'd just heard. She turned to Blake, who was smirking at her.

"Not so fun when it's being done to you, is it?"

"Oh my gods, you're impossible!" Yang tried to sound upset, but she couldn't stop herself from laughing. "And I wasn't nearly that bad." She resumed the game, but Blake's little hum didn't escape her notice. A more comfortable silence settled between them this time, and Yang was able to better focus on the game. _"For someone who's never played a game before, she's doing really well."_ She thought. The one time Ruby had managed to convince Weiss to play a similar game (but with Grimm rather than aliens), everyone had witnessed the incredible, patented, filmed and shared with JNPR: the Weiss Schnee breakdown. Complaining about pretty much every aspect of the game, Weiss had stormed out of the room with Ruby chasing after her. (It hadn't helped that all three girls were teasing Weiss about being so bad.)

While Yang _had_ been prepared to tease Blake in a similar fashion, now she was only able to compliment her. The girl hadn't died once, had racked up a considerable amount of points, and was easily holding her own in a completely separate area from Yang. "You're pretty good at this."

"Well, it is pretty easy." Blake said.

Yang had to agree with her. "Well, you wanna make it harder? There are a bunch of things I have turned off."

Blake simply shrugged. "Sure." Was all she said, setting her scroll down and flexing her fingers.

-Rocky Road-

"What the hell is that thing?!"

"Run Blake, you don't have enough ammo to fight it!"

Blake's eyes widened as the large, spider-like creature chased her. "Where's an ammo crate?!" She looked all over the hologram, but the fire and explosions coming from both the regular enemies and the boss kept putting her focus back on running away. It really only took about three minutes for things to start picking up after Yang had turned the difficulty up. The number of enemies that attacked at once had increased dramatically, and they were coming from all different angles, too. Blake had done the same thing this new round as she had the first; run off in a completely different direction than Yang. That had turned out to be a bad idea, as she'd quickly run out of ammo and been forced to use a knife (not a good idea when enemies were attacking from all 360 degrees), and then a giant spider looking thing had shown up.

Yang was closing in on Blake's location, but the poor girl was low on health and wasn't doing very well running. "Eat this you crummy aliens!" Blake's little soldier ran past Blake, and Yang quickly lay into the enemy chasing after her.

"Thanks partner." Blake bought some ammo from a crate just past Yang, and then turned around and started shooting as well. The duo backpedaled as they fired, killing off the smaller aliens until only the larger alien remained.

Unfortunately, the two were far too low on ammo to kill it, and neither had the funds to get more. "Well…" Yang faked a voice crack as she kept circling around the alien boss, "I guess this is it." She reached up and wiped a non-existent tear from her eye.

"It's been an honor." Blake's voice was flat and monotone, intentionally exaggerated.

The two set their scrolls down and closed their eyes, then a moment later they heard, _"Game over!"_ coming from the stand. Yang snorted, then started laughing at the silliness of the situation.

"That was a little too hard." Blake admitted. "Maybe we should turn off the bosses?"

"Yeah… Let's do that."

-Rocky Road-

About an hour later, Blake and Yang were still playing. Now that the balance was fine tuned, it was much easier to have fun while being challenged. It seemed that no matter what, there was always something throwing Blake for a curve; there was a surprising amount of variety in the alien ranks, and holing up in one place wasn't a viable strategy. So Blake and Yang kept on the move, moving up and down floors while leading the aliens into 'kill tunnels', racking up points and buying new weapons, setting up turrets and traps, until eventually something forced them to stop playing.

"I don't think I've ever heard anyone's stomach growl that loudly before." Blake commented as she disconnected her scroll from the Holovision.

"Well, first time for everything!" Yang exclaimed, hoping that the blush she was feeling wasn't noticeable to Blake. "Let's go get something."

As they exited the room, Blake bumped into Yang lightly. "Well, that was fun. I definitely see the appeal."

"Better than reading boring ol' books?"

"Mmm… nah." Blake said with a smile. "Though I guess it would give me something to do when I'm not in the mood to read."

Yang fist pumped the air. "Awesome! I'll show you a bunch of other games we can play next time, alright?" She turned to her partner, and was glad to receive a nod in confirmation.


	3. Detention

"Miss Xiao Long, there is a curfew put in place for a reason. Staying out past it for any reason is unacceptable. I'm afraid I'll have to give you and your partner detention."

" _I'm_ getting detention too!? That's why I got called out here in the middle of the night!?" Blake asked in equal parts confusion and anger.

"I'm sorry Miss Belladonna, but as her partner you are supposed to keep Yang out of trouble." Port explained. "Perhaps being forced to share in her punishment will remind you of this fact. You are in this together, so please try to look out for…" Port and Blake glanced over to Yang, who'd fallen back asleep in her chair. "...Yang!"

"I'm up! I'm up!" The blonde spoke quickly as she stood. "What are you doing here Blake?" She looked her partner in confusion as though she wasn't really there.

"I'm getting detention because you fell asleep in the library." Blake informed her, no small amount of bitterness in her voice.

"So what am I getting?" Yang asked Port.

"You will also get detention." Port said. "The two of you will be working in the cafeteria tomorrow. I expect you two-"

"Why is Blake getting detention?" Yang interrupted.

"-To be there first thing in the morning." Port finished. "Perhaps you won't be so inclined to break the rules if others are being punished for your actions. Goodnight, you two." He handed them a handwritten note to serve as a hall pass, then left.

A few moments of silence passed while Yang gathered her books before Blake spoke. "What are you doing asleep in the library?"

"Well, I was helping Ruby study." Yang explained. "You know, she needs help catching up since she got skipped ahead. Then I had to catch up on my studying, and then…" She shrugged. "Sorry you're getting detention because of me." She muttered.

Blake sighed. Yang sounded a little hoarse; she probably hadn't taken a break at all while helping Ruby. "It's alright. Just be a little more careful next time, alright?"

Yang just nodded in affirmation, and the rest of the trip back to the teams dorm room was spent in silence aside from a quick stop at a water fountain so Yang could get quench her thirst. Once they got back in bed, Yang just set her books aside and climbed into bed without changing into her pajamas.

-Rocky Road-

After showing up to the cafeteria and being told that they would help with cooking lunch, taking out the garbage, and cleaning the dirty trays, Blake and Yang got to work. It was going to be a long day; they'd been told by Port that they were going to be here until the cafeteria closed down for the day.

Unfortunately, neither Blake nor Yang had had much time to talk once they started. It was only when the lunch rush had finished were Blake and Yang allowed to take a break. Luckily one perk of working in the kitchen for the day meant they were guaranteed fresh food. Sitting at the very end of one the rows, Blake and Yang started eating.

"You know, I can think of about a million other things I'd rather be doing right now." Yang said between bites of food.

"Maybe next time you won't fall asleep in the library." Yang sighed, and Blake lowered her fork back to her plate.

" _Like it's my fault that Ruby got skipped ahead two years and she needs help."_

Blake cleared her throat, getting Yang's attention. "Sorry. But c'mon, there's worse ways to spend your Saturdays than by cooking."

Yang looked away. "Yeah, I could be exercising, or training, or studying for that stupid test in Port's class, but noooo! Port has to give me detention because I was studying for the work in his class!"

"Well, if you overwork yourself you won't do as well on the test, or the rest of your work." Blake tried to reason with her.

"And if I can't study then I won't do well either." Yang retorted. The two fell into a silence as they finished eating. _"It's not Blake's fault either, I shouldn't be giving her attitude just because I'm bummed out."_ She took a sip from her drink, then rested her chin on her hand. "What about you?"

"Huh?"

"Are you ready for Port's test on Monday?" Yang clarified.

Blake relaxed a little as the conversation turned friendlier. "Yes, I'm prepared. I'll do a little more studying tomorrow, but if I had to take the test right now I bet I'd ace it."

"Well, that's good!" Yang said with a smile. "Wanna study together? I kind of passed out on my own."

"Sure." Blake agreed. "C'mon, let's finish eating and get this stupid detention over with."

-Rocky Road-

Monday morning came quicker than Yang would've liked. No one liked Mondays, but no one liked having to take a test first thing in the morning as well. After the morning routine in the bathroom ended, Yang stepped outside to find Ruby frantically zipping around the room. "What's wrong, Ruby?"

"I can't find my notes!" She exclaimed. "I thought I left them right here, but…"

"Well, retrace your steps." Yang began, but Blake stepped forward and grabbed Yang's arm.

"We should get to class." She said.

"You go on ahead, I'll help Ruby find her stuff."

Weiss cleared her throat, and everyone turned to look at her. "I'll help Ruby, since she's my partner. You two go on ahead, we'll be there soon."

Blake and Yang looked to each other then shrugged, turning around and leaving the room.

As they walked, Yang glanced at Blake, who was smiling. "You're in a cheery mood today." She noted.

"That's because I took Ruby's stuff to Port's class before the rest of you woke up." She turned to Yang with a smirk. "It'll be the last place she looks."

Yang laughed, in complete disbelief of what Blake had done. "Why?" She asked once she'd calmed down.

Blake cleared her throat, then in a poor imitation of Port's voice said, "Perhaps she will remember that we are in this together and not to get others in trouble. Ho-ho!"

The two laughed together, and continued walking. "You didn't have to do that, you know." Yang said after a moment.

"... No big deal. Just pay more attention to yourself next time." Blake shrugged.

Yang didn't respond. No one had ever told her that before; she was so used to taking care of Ruby first and then taking care of herself later that late nights studying by herself at Signal had been the norm for years now. And Signal didn't have a curfew, so Yang had completely forgotten about it when she'd been told about the curfew here at Beacon. "Yeah, I will." What had happened in and of itself was hardly a big deal, but it meant a lot to Yang that Blake had said what she did.


	4. An Adventure

_Sorry, I've got too much classwork._

 _No, my team needs me right now._

 _Maybe some other time, I'm not feeling up to it right now._

Yang sighed as she looked through the messages she'd received almost two weeks ago from the group chat she'd been in with her friends. Ever since they'd all gotten into Beacon, messages had been few and far between the group of friends. Usually the group chat got a few messages every couple of days; things like memes, people wanting to know who was available to hang out, passing information between everyone, that sort of thing. And it was never this dead, it hadn't been this way at Signal, not even during final exams. But two whole weeks without any updates from anyone? Her friends _were_ still in her year, they were taking the same classes that she was, but Yang still had time to reach out to them even with all the studying and combat practicing she did. _"Maybe they just made new friends. That's what I told Ruby to do, that's what I did…"_ Sighing, she decided that she'd keep trying to reach out to them.

But at that moment, the door was kicked inward and Ruby bolted through, rose petals materializing in the room. "Yang, help me!" Ruby cried, quickly closing the door and pushing a desk in its way to block it.

"Woah, what's going on?!" Yang's protective big sister instincts kicked in and she extended Ember Celica as she got off Blake's bed where she'd been sitting and helped Ruby brace the desk against the door.

"Ruby Rose you get out here _right now!_ "

"What did you do to Weiss?!" Yang asked as said Heiress started pounding on the other side of the door.

"I gave her an order and she's being insubordinate!" Ruby explained. "Hold the door while I get out the window!"

"Oh no you don't! Nora!" Weiss shouted through the door.

"What order did you give her!?" Yang asked, although not entirely sure she wanted the answer considering this was the angriest she'd ever seen (or heard) Weiss. The desk slid against the floor as something heavy ran into the door, and Yang quickly pushed it back into place.

"I ordered her to study on her own!" Ruby said. "And she said I still had a lot to catch up on and that I was studying whether I liked it or not and I said I've done nothing but study since I got here and I was taking a day off and she could deal with it and then I ran away and she chased me and now Nora is going to break my legs so I can't run away anymore!" She rambled, opening the window and stepping onto the window sill. "Remember me as the person I was, not what I became." She saluted, then jumped out of the room. Unfortunately, Weiss had a glyph ready in the hallway. Ruby was pulled back into the room right as the door caved inwards and the desk ran over Yang.

"Act your age!" Weiss hollered at her partner. "And don't do that ever again or else I will put a leash on you! Now let's go!"

"Yaaaaaaaang!"

Unfortunately, the older sister was still trapped beneath a desk and a Nora, and couldn't do anything. "Well that was hectic." Nora said casually. She got off the desk and moved it off Yang, who was face down on the floor. "You alright?"

"Mmf." Was all Yang said into the floor. The whole ordeal had barely lasted for an entire minute, and yet Yang was exhausted like she'd just run a marathon.

"Well, Ren and I were about to head to the gym, so I gotta get going. See ya!" The door closed with a soft click as Nora turned and left.

With that, Yang was left on the floor. The room was filled with silence, and Yang took a deep breath as she stood up and brushed herself off. Pushing the accompanying chair back into its place at the desk, Yang took a seat back on the edge of Blake's bed. For a few minutes, she sat and thought about what she should do herself. She was doing well in all her classes, and didn't need to study for anything since most tests were a few weeks away. Jaune and Pyrrha had gone to the library, where'd they spent most of the morning, Weiss had kidnapped an innocent child and was now forcing her to study, and Ren and Nora were in the gym. She'd just had combat practice with her team yesterday, and had been planning on spending the day relaxing with her friends. Blake had left early in the morning before anyone woke up, and a note saying she'd be in Vale running errands and to not wait up on her pillow.

Yang grabbed her scroll and was reminded of what she'd been trying to do before the whole debacle had started. _"Maybe I should try and find some new lead on mom…"_ She thought. The last lead had ended up with a destroyed nightclub and no new info. Yang smacked herself as she suddenly realized that maybe Junior didn't know where Raven was, but he might know someone else who did. That might be a lead worth investigating. Satisfied with a plan, Yang stood and was reaching for the door handle when her scroll started ringing.

"Blake?" She frowned, then answered. "Oh hello!"

"Did you know you're impossible to shop for?"

Yang blinked, not quite sure how to respond, and so let out an intelligent, "Uh…"

"I've been to shops all over Vale, but everytime I find something that would make a nice gift I realize that it's not something you would appreciate." Blake continued as though Yang knew what she was talking about.

Before she could go on, Yang quickly interrupted. "What- Why are you buying me a gift? Is that where you've been all morning?"

"Yes it is. You know for someone who talks so much, you'd think that it'd be easier to shop for you." Blake sounded amused on the other end.

Yang feigned indignation with a gasp. "How dare you? I don't talk that _much_! And don't say that like it's a bad thing, either."

"Well, I've wasted an entire morning looking at knick knacks, books, makeup, magazines, action figures… Just tell me what you want and I'll buy it for you. I hate all this guesswork."

"First, tell me what the occasion is." Yang requested.

"It's for those books you bought me a while back, remember?" Blake told her. "I wanted to get you something in return, but I can't find anything that I'd think you'd like."

Yang nodded in understanding, flopping back onto Blake's bed. She knew what Blake was talking about, but it seemed a little unnecessary to her. Either way, she did have an answer. "Ugh, I could use something to help me relax. I've got a story to tell you when you get back."

"I'll pick you up some tea. How does that sound?"

"Perfect."

"Okay, I'll see you soon."

-Rocky Road-

It was about 40 minutes before Blake returned, and Yang had not moved an inch after setting her scroll down when the call ended. In fact, she'd actually fallen into a light sleep and it was only when her scroll started buzzing did she wake back up. "Yello." She mumbled after answering, rubbing her eyes and sitting up.

"Your tea is in the common area." Was all Blake said before she hung up.

Yang stood up with a groan, leaving the warm dorm room and going into the air conditioned hallway, shivering a little as she closed the door behind her. The common area was at the end of the hall, and it was equipped with a microwave, a table, a few couches, a TV, and even a small stove in case students wanted to cook their own meals instead of going to the cafeteria. But it was the unspoken law to never leave dishes behind unless you wanted them stolen; paper plates, cups, and plastic forks and spoons were all that were allowed. There were two common areas on every floor, and served as a place for teams and friends to hang out and relax if they didn't want to be confined to their dorms in their free time. Spotting Blake sitting on the couch with a cup already in hand, she raised a hand in greeting.

"It's Chamomile tea." Blake said as Yang started pouring some into a cup.

"I don't know what that means." Yang responded with a smile before gently blowing on her tea, then taking a small sip. "But it tastes good!" She admitted. Strolling over to the couch and sitting beside Blake, she took another small sip.

"So, what's this story you had to tell me?" Blake asked.

Yang blinked before she remembered what she'd told Blake. "Okay, so get this: Ruby comes running into the room at light speed and the first thing she does is push the desk against the door, begging me for help. So, awesome big sister that I am, I do so without hesitation. Then Weiss starts pounding on the door, demanding Ruby come out of the room _at once_." She said in a bad mimicry of Weiss. "Ruby tells me she's going for the window, so I'm just hold the desk against the door by myself, when Weiss pulls a cheap trick and gets Nora to help her bust in."

"Aw yes, one of the few people in the school that can match you in brute strength. That's a dirty trick indeed." Blake said as she smirked. "What on Remnant happened? Why was Weiss so mad?"

Yang started giggling, and then said between laughter, "Ruby was trying to get out of studying! She _actually_ tried to jump out the window!" Yang started laughing harder now, putting the cup down so she wouldn't spill any. "She almost made it, too. Weiss caught her with a glyph mid-air and dragged her back to the library!" Yang had to stop to wipe a couple of tears that were forming in her eye. "Oh man, Nora burst through the door so hard that she ended up trapping me beneath the desk."

"Are you alright?" Blake asked, a bit of concern in her voice.

"I'm fine, my aura took the blow for me." Yang assured her. "Oh, you should've been there. Weiss was furious! She sounded like she was gonna pop a blood vessel or something!" Yang started to laugh again.

Blake whistled slightly. "I wish I could've seen it. Weiss usually has an attitude, but I don't think I've ever seen her angry." She took a small sip of her tea before adding, "Although it's a good thing Weiss caught her, because it's a pretty far drop to the ground."

"She would've been fine. There's that big tree right outside our window, remember? She could've grabbed some branches on the way down." Yang said.

"Hmm." Blake paused for a moment as she took a drink and then said, "Guess that wasn't Weiss's… cup of tea?"

Yang gasped. "Blake Belladonna, do my ears deceive me or did you actually just make a pun?"

"Your bad habits must be rubbing off on me." Was she all she said.

The two settled into silence, but silently Yang was feeling particularly proud of her partner. It hadn't even been a bad pun, at least not by her standards. A few minutes passed before Yang asked, "So, do you have anything planned for today?" When Blake just shook her head, Yang said, "Well, let's find something to do! Bottle that tea, because we're going to go on an adventure!"

Blake rolled her eyes, but smiled as she stood up. "Why don't we just throw a frisbee around instead? It's a nice day out."

"That works for me! Let's go!" Yang said, gulping down the rest of her tea and tossing the cup into the trash from across the room. "Where are we gonna find a frisbee?"

"...Hmm… Looks like we'll be going on an adventure to find a frisbee."


End file.
